Parents, students warn against prolonged ASUU strike

Parents, students and other stakeholders have expressed worries about the prolonged strike by Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

Some of them, who spoke to The Guardian yesterday, expressed worries about the action, which could expose students to crimes and other negative behaviors.

National President, National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS), Danielson Akpan, in a live radio broadcast, said the yearly strike in the nation’s education system was responsible for the production of half-baked graduates.

He lamented that most times when a strike is called off, students are compelled to go straight to the examination halls without completing their curricula.

He said there was the need for students, who are critical stakeholders, to be involved in the process of negotiations and decisions making to avert reoccurrence of strike action.

“We cannot continue like this, how can you write what you were not taught, or give back what you were not given, we end up learning for two weeks in a semester to write examinations, instead of the usual 15 weeks of comprehensive learning.

He said Nigerian students do not feel comfortable and safe to sit at home, adding that since government doesn’t provide accommodation, landlords of the houses they stay off campus don’t collect their rents, strike or no strike.

A third year student of the Imo State University, Perpetual Ahanonye, decried the rising level of continuous strike in the education sector, which has forced her to learn a trade until it is called off.

Also, a parent, Mrs. Joy Okoro, said government officials’ lip service to the plight of lecturers was because their own children school abroad.

She said: “Most of our politicians and leaders don’t really understand what students and lecturers encounter as a result of their inactions.

“This is why we are appealing to ASUU to consider the long term consequence of this strike, and call off the strike.”

Ending the strike, they said, was necessary because of the negative effects on the students and the society, especially with the nearness of the 2019 general elections.